By now you must have heard the viral gist concerning the investigative journalist, Nicholas Ibekwe who published an audio recording of TB Joshua bribing Nigerian journalists with 50k over the ‘Synagogue collapse’ issue.
For releasing the tape, some Nigerians commended Nicholas for his integrity while many more condemned him.
He has now reacted by explaining why he published the recording below:
The last 72 hours have probably been the most intense in my life. The love,
kind words and support I’ve received in that period from total strangers
mostly, has been overwhelming. I want to thank everybody who saw the good in
what I did. Though, to be honest, I think it was a little stupid. What was I
thinking putting my life and probably my career on the line in an attempt to
change something so entrenched it seems unchangeable? However, really I am not
fazed by the trash talk from those allergic to the truth.
It’s been a long time coming and someone has to put the bell on the fat cat.
During the same period I have also been insulted like never before. I have
been called the most uncomplimentary names and all the curses in Deuteronomy
hurled towards me. They should be ashamed that the bruised ego of their
spiritual godfather means more to them than the over ninety lives that perished
under the rubble.
I can deal with the trash talk and name-calling. But I am also not naïve. I
have made plans to evacuate my family to safety at the shortest notice in case
things escalate. I hope that does not happen, but one can never be so sure with
these fundamentalists.
They said I’m an attention freak; that I published the audio clip
because I yearned to be a social media celebrity (whatever that means). Well, I
won’t lie; I enjoyed the 15 minutes of fame. I loved the thrill of being in the
eye of the storm. In case my accusers are reading this, I got over 2,000
followers on Twitter within the period. I don’t know what to make of that yet.
I’m not so sure about this Twitter thing but if there’s a way I can convert
that to money, that would be something. Gbenga Olorunpomi, how much does one twitter follower
exchange for a dollar these days?
So why did I publish the audio?
I had recorded the audio six days before posting it on Twitter. To be
sincere, I did not think much of it until Saturday morning. I was intently
watching the way the collapsed building drama was being played out in the media
after the rather disappointing way Lagos State Governor, Babatunde Fashola,
dodged reporters through a back door following his private meeting with TB
Joshua on September 14. I observed that Nigerian media were being too gentle on
TB Joshua despite the glaring irregularities surrounding the collapse. I read
more reports about the “hovering craft” and how Boko Haram could have sabotaged
the building.
Very little was reported about the structural defects of the building. Not
much was written about the fact that the building originally had 2 floors and
was being illegally refurbished with 4 additional floors when it collapsed. We
didn’t come hard on the Synagogue Church goons who attacked first responders.
We didn’t highlight the fact that many of those that perished could have been
saved if NEMA officials weren’t barred from the site for almost three days! We
didn’t make an issue of the fact that our colleagues who had gone to report the
collapsed building were molested on Saturday.
So when I woke up last Saturday morning and saw the picture of Jonathan
shaking hands with a grinning TB Joshua with headlines like “Jonathan consoles
TB Joshua,” I said damn it! I couldn’t stomach this blatant impunity.
TB Joshua is perhaps the most powerful preacher in Africa and politicians
all over the continent fawn at him. But as watchdogs, journalists must hold
entrenched powers to account. If Nigerian politicians didn’t realise that more
than 90 lives had just perished underneath a building without requisite permit
and that those responsible should be held accountable, then the responsibility
falls on journalists to force them to do the right thing.
Journalists shouldn’t be seen or heard telling the prime suspect they would
write “just like you said” after he offered to buy their consciences with N50,000.
Some of the reporters who collected the N50,000 have called me after the audio
went viral to complain. They told me they have been getting calls from
colleagues and family members who recognised their voices in the recording. One
even accused me of a breach of trust. I told him I didn’t sign a pact of silence
with anybody. For me the decision was between covering the ethical shortcomings
of my colleagues or doing that which is right to make sure those who died and
their families get justice. The decision was easy.
Why didn’t I publish the audio the same day I recorded it? Nigerian
journalists habitually ask for gratification at press conferences and corporate
events that it has unfortunately become a norm. Reporters actually think you’re
a fool if you turned down what they call “brown envelope”. There are several
excuses to justify it: “We’re poorly paid,” “We have not been paid for months,”
etc. Honestly, it’s hard to dismiss some of these excuses sometimes. Nigerian
Journalists are perhaps among the worst paid in the world. This is where the
Nigerian Union of Journalist should do more. Its officials should stop paying
courtesy calls to politicians (of course, we know what exchanges hands during
these visits) and do more to force Jet-flying owners of media organisations to
pay reporters more and on time. We deserve it.
Journalists should also explore other related and legitimate means of making
money like researching, writing and editing reports for NGOs, writing and
editing of brochures and reports, working as fixers to foreign journalists,
blogging (I recently met a Nigerian television reporter that makes quite some
money monthly from his blog), etc.
Like everything in Nigeria, this “brown envelope” thing has been stretched
beyond the limit of ridiculousness. I’ll give some examples: On August 15, 2010
a truck belonging to Dangote Sugar Refinery caused an inferno at the Ojodu
Bridge outside Otedola Estate in Lagos. More that fifty people perished in the
fire. An inquest was initiated by a non-governmental organisation, Access to
Justice and Human Rights lawyer, Femi Falana. Please take a deep breath before
reading the next sentence. During the inquest, officials of Dangote Industries
distributed cartons of spaghetti (and some money, probably to buy ingredients)
to court reporters at the Ikeja High Court to probably skew their account of
the hearing.
In case you missed it let me repeat. Some Nigerian Journalists collected
packs of spaghetti as bribes!
Are we that hungry? Some reporters got as little as 12 packs of spaghetti.
My friend, Ben
Ezeamalu, was almost beaten up for speaking against it. In fact, they
erected a wall of hostility around themselves whenever he came around.
According to him, a very senior journalist pulled him aside and told him it was
easy for him to turn down the brown envelope because he wasn’t married and had
no school fees to pay.
Ben said his curiosity was aroused while he was researching for material on
the internet for an article he was writing days before the coroner’s verdict on
the inquest. To his surprise, there was very little material for an inquest
that involved Africa’s richest man and had lasted 19 months! After the coroner
delivered his verdict, in which he indicted Dangote’s company as well as the
Nigeria Police, the (short) article was tucked away in a remote corner in
almost all the newspapers the next day. The fact that the coroner indicted
Dangote was also carefully left out in the articles. Other journalists have
tagged Ben “a spy” for consistently refusing to collect “brown envelopes”.
Nigerian journalists no longer know where to draw the line. A father that
lost his son during last Dana plane crash was forced to pay journalists during
his son’s wake-keep before it was reported. There are more puke-inducing instances
but I’d stop here.
For those of you saying N50,000
($300) was too little to entice Nigerian reporters, I’ve seen reporters scuffle
over N2,000
($12) during a press conference.
During last year’s gubernatorial election in Ondo State, reporters literally
came to blows at Governor Mimiko’s home after the latter released “appreciation
money” for journalists who covered his polling unit. The sharing formula was N10,000 per head,
until the cash ran low and the formula switched to N7,000. Cue bedlam.
The governor’s PA, looking on with contempt, threatened to evict them from
his employer’s residence if they failed to conduct themselves with decorum. One
fellow even started arranging for another group of journalists to go meet the
governor for another “appreciation money.”
Editors should also monitor their reporters too, but we all know that some
editors get theirs through subtler manner (bank transfers). I’m a Nigerian
journalist I want to change things the only way I know how to – going public
with it. I’m not saying anything new here, everybody who has one thing or the
other to do with journalists knows that these things happen. Maybe I’m the
first journalist to go public with it in such a manner.
Corporate organisations and individuals should also stop offering these
bribes (I still insist that they are bribes and nothing else). Journalists will
report your events whether they like it or not. They want to stay in business.
My heart skips any time I get a call from my editor or receive that email with
a subject that reads: “Pending stories”. I know I’m required to deliver. I
don’t need that “brown envelope” to turn around that copy.
I know in The Punch for instance, reporters are required to fill a certain
number of pages every week. They can’t sit around waiting for “money to fuel
your cars” to write stories to fill those pages. The threat of losing one of
the most lucrative jobs in the industry is enough “inducement”. But the truth
is most pressers aren’t news worthy so PR officials feel they need to induce
reporters to write about them.
And for the fundamentalist followers of TB Joshua, this isn’t about your
spiritual Godfather. I would still have gone public with this if the Pope was
involved. I can’t say I’m sorry that his ego was bruised. He clearly meant for
the money to influence the reporting of the event. “So what are you going to
write?” He had asked. That makes it a bribe. Simple. I can’t help you if you
couldn’t decipher that. I’m a reporter not a brain surgeon.
This is the last I’m going to say on this issue unless something drastic
happens. Let the personal attacks continue.
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A version of this piece was released simultaneously on Nicholas’s blog.